‘Challenge’ facing Union over accession states’ drug problem

In many of the ten countries hoping to join the EU next year, drug use is already an integral part of youth culture and has reached “critical” levels, states the study by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

The Lisbon-based EU agency’s Director, Georges Estievenart, writes: “The challenge for an enlarged EU will be to help new member states build a more comprehensive and sustainable response to this complex issue and will require new initiatives.”

The report, due to be published on 14 April, also states: “Whereas in the EU, the population of problem drug users is largely stable and ageing, in the majority of candidate countries the phenomenon is newer and problem drug users are generally younger.

“There is considerable concern about the potential for future problems.”

The 50-page document finds that cannabis is the main drug of choice in accession states, but that heroin is increasingly being used along with synthetic drugs.

The problem is most acute in the Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania. Drug use in the Czech Republic, Malta and Slovenia is nearer the EU average.

The Baltic states also show the biggest prevalence of drug-related diseases, with evidence of “high-risk” behaviour which, states the report, could lead to a further substantial increase in drug use in the coming years.

Solvent abuse also represents a challenge for most of the ten states joining the EU in June 2004.

Attitudes towards drug use in the mostly eastern European countries have also changed, the agency found.

“While drug use was historically viewed as deviant behaviour normally associated with socially maladjusted youth, it has become an increasingly common practice related to leisure among young people,” writes Estievenart.

He adds there is a “substantial” gap between policy aims and the reality of drug prevention in the ten states.

While many member states are developing programmes to tackle the problem, initiatives are “non-existent” in the accession countries, he claims.

The statistic-gathering agency urges a “better balanced” response from accession countries and concludes: “There is an urgent need to tackle the problem but enlargement gives the EU a unique opportunity to deal with the complexity of the drugs phenomenon.”